Patient and Care Context

This section describes patient-level and care-related context used by SOFUS to support correct clinical interpretation of observations.

Unlike laboratory values or vital signs, the inputs described here are contextual rather than clinical signals. They provide essential background information that allows SOFUS to interpret observations relative to the patient’s characteristics and current care setting.

These inputs are represented using standard FHIR resources and are consumed as time-relevant contextual information.

Core patient context

Core patient context provides baseline characteristics that influence how clinical observations are interpreted.

Patient age

Age is derived from the patient’s date of birth and used to support age-dependent interpretation of clinical values.

Biological sex

Biological sex is used for sex-specific interpretation, including thresholds and reference ranges where applicable.

Admission and care context

In addition to patient characteristics, SOFUS relies on contextual information related to care setting and treatment state.

This context is used to interpret observations correctly in relation to the patient’s current situation and clinical environment.

Examples of admission and care context include:

• Admission or inpatient context

• Encounter type (e.g. inpatient vs. outpatient)

• Temporal relationship between observations and admission

• Ongoing treatment indicators

• Oxygen therapy parameters

• Active monitoring context

Care context is not treated as a clinical signal in itself, but as supporting information that influences how observations and trends are interpreted by SOFUS.

Inputs

Clinical concept	FHIR value type	Example codes
Patient age	date / integer (derived)	Patient.birthDate
Biological sex	CodeableConcept	Patient.gender
Admission / encounter context	CodeableConcept	Encounter.class, Encounter.type
Temporal relation to admission	dateTime / Period	Encounter.period
Oxygen therapy in progress	Quantity / CodeableConcept	NPU10167
Oxygen delivery context	Quantity	NPU03007
Active monitoring context	CodeableConcept	Encounter.status, monitoring-related encounter metadata